Effects of Utilization of Background Music in Advertising - Essay Example

Task Effects of Utilization of Background Music in Advertising The project in question aims at the identification of the aspectsof music based on the different changes that have rocked the field over time. It is now possible to identify many things following Jeff Titon’s material on music that has gained popularity in its expressions and identification of the styles apparent to the current music cultures. The sound scape keeps widening and reengineered. There is a lot of sound around the world today with different meanings and cultures embedded within it. These sounds vary from persons, places and intentions. Some sounds are irrelevant and only made to keep one in their activities for example singing while in the showers and while working in the gardens while others commercialized. All these have different meanings to different people and stand to provide inspiration in one way or another (Titon, Anne, David, David and Timothy 1). Based on the different cultures that people hail from, different music represents different cultures and makes life viewed in different meanings based on the believes and justifications of the communities. The differences in the music produced by many base on the culture they represent and the message they consider prime in their music. The aspect of culture defines music. Interviews conducted by different people reveal that every musician has a story to share in their music. They reveal music is not just the sound, but also what the sound spreads as the message. The attachment that people have grown to associate music with the message have seen the use of music in adverts grow overtime. Adverts aim at providing information or passing a message to the consumers on a product. It aims at attracting the attention of the consumers and ensuring that a memory attaches to the product. For years, music has grown to blend well into advertising in packaging the message for the consumer. A number of studies have come to exist on the effects that music has on the aspect of the way consumers behave when choosing a product (Hoyer and Deborah 181). The music aims at influencing the consumer moods and the responses that they pose to advertising. Background music as used commonly besides advertising, refers to the soundscapes that relate to the various music styles intended for passive listening only. They are passive in the sense that they are not the focus that the audience draws to but they just accompany the focus point. Besides, in adverts, such music is useful during social gatherings, retail venues electronic media through films, video blogs, videos on the internet and television. The influence that background music has on the advertising aspect relates to many benefits. These ranges from influencing of the learning aspects related with products that aim at imparting knowledge, developing a working memory for the customers and for helping one recall or keep a strong memory over an item and for drawing attention. When applying music to advertising, the selection of music bases on the message intended for portrayal. Most of advertising managers relate the advertising music with what the product serves to the customers. When interviewing most of the marketing managers, the researcher realized that the music attaches to the memorization effect that makes the sales affected positively based on the functions served by the product. One of the effects of music to advertising is for persuasion of the customers. Research in this field has showed the effects of music in adverts on neutral and or products that are uncontroversial. The music is believed to provide an easy recall factor that helps the customers remember easily the product when need arises. When the song plays any time, the customer thinks of the product hence making the product their choice based on their attachment they have to the music. The aspects that connects the customers here is involvement that they have created with the music, their attitudes, the way in which the adverts are presented and the valence of the music. The music acts as a catalyst. It stimulates the customer’s mind and draws them closer to the product. The music on the research showed an effect of increasing acceptance of the product therefore making it a manipulative item. The music comes as a factor to manipulate and cause bias on the judgment of the customers. The areas of the customers affected are areas of emotional responses, the attitude they have over the brand and the intention to purchase the product. Another study conducted using music and adverts without music had an effect on the results. The music related to the emotional effects of the audience, which influences their decisions when buying the product. The music used aims at enriching the message, which is one of the most stimulating effects of an advert. The music arouses the emotions of consumers thereby biasing their judgment towards that direction. The music indirectly influences the feelings of the respondent’s and part of their emotional responses. There are different music styles existent in the field. For application of these into advertising, one requires to determine the message that they want to reach the people. The message and kind of audience targeted helps determine the music to use. For many companies, the use of youth music is necessary if the product aims at attracting youths while country, pop, soul or other classical style is applicable for mature audiences. The message of the music is very vital in compounding the effect. Among the popular types stated, other types more relating to music and advertising include ambient music used due to its elements of sounds from nature but most of its producers and other similar types of music do not necessarily intend to use the background as a qualifier for their music. Incidental music, furniture music, elevator music, video games and music used on blogs including music on the internet all mark forms of music in advertising. The history of music in advertising develops on many fields and products. One of the pioneers of sound branding insists that music in advertising began earlier than believed. The church stands as his beginning point. The church appears as one of the first truly developed corporate structures. The churches owned more than a corporate structure with a related corporate behavior, a brand logo and a sound that branded them. The sound was from a bell but still provided the influence of the music today (Muller 325). Aspect of advertising has received various changes from its inception with each century marking its own changes. The aspects of technology drawn into the system and they have seen it evolve to advertising more vigorously applied in the media. The media has grown from only written media in the earlier centuries to the video and audio media currently evidenced. The relations of human psychology are part of the invention that brought music into advertising. With an attempt to study human emotions and their attachments, music proved to control part of the human emotions. Proper coordination of the music with the message provides the vital element that the customer leans to when making a purchase decision. The influence that music has to the cultural attachments of people attaches to the desire or demand factor. For proper marketing and appreciation of music, the musicians relate music to their cultures, the message that they intend to pass to the public. The relationship is a factor that all musicians consider as evident in all musical items including the message (Peterson 252). When development of music in an advert occurs with that in mind, this music manages to influence the population easily towards the product hence making a positive mark on marketing strategies adopted by the corporation. With changes in the advertising field still coming, the future for the use of music in advertising is still changing. The aspects of technology have a major role to play in this. With the changes evident from the earlier centuries of development that saw the use of print media, to audio and then video, as technology advances, more and more changes in advertising remain unavoidable. The fact that musical adverts base on the customers makes it dependent on the customer needs and emotional aspects to influence changes. The use of music bases on the audience targeted. The use of childish music to attract the children for ice cream could not work for adults hence making the audience an important part of deciding music to include in a commercial advert. Based on the work developed, the writer believes that music in advertising attaches to the emotional content of the customer and hence influencing their buying decision. Through this, the aspect of marketing becomes simpler and the customers respond based on how easy they attach to the song. The music biases their decisions towards selection of the products that marks their decisions in purchasing. Advertising continues to change the competition landscape in business, but the music selected for this function also keeps determining more of the psychological aspects of advertising that marketers and business owners need to employ. Work Cited Hoyer, Wayne D., and Deborah J. MacInnis. Consumer Behavior. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print. Muller, J. P.. Pervasive Advertising. New York City: Springer, 2011. Print. Peterson, Indira Viswanathan. Design and Rhetoric in A Sanskrit Court Epic: The Kirātārjunīya of Bharavi. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003. Print. Titon, Jeff, Anne Rasmussen, David McAllester, David Locke, and Timothy Cooley. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the Worlds Peoples. Stamford Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print. Read More